When Neolithic tribes erected Stonehenge and pharaonic civilizations built the pyramids, did they know that people thousands of years in the future would travel from around the world to marvel?

In today’s disposable society, is anything really built to last, besides plastics and nuclear waste?

One answer lies deep within a remote mountain in West Texas, where a decades-long project is nearing completion to install something called the 10,000 Year Clock.

Designed and engineered to stretch 500 vertical feet through shafts and chambers excavated through solid rock by giant robots and explosives, the clock is an astronomical machine on a monumental scale.

And its goal, its designers say, is to spark the imaginations not only of generations in the far distant future, but of generations living today.

“The idea was born out of the need for some kind of icon to long-term thinking,” said engineer Alexander Rose, project designer and director of The Long Now Foundation, a nonprofit based in San Francisco dedicated to the long view for the sake of civilization.

“There are several issues in the world, like hunger and climate change, that fundamentally can’t be solved in a very near-term perspective. They may take hundreds of years, if not longer. And we as a society aren’t really giving ourselves permission to think on that kind of long-term.”

At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Rose will be at the Virginia Air & Space Center in downtown Hampton to offer a free public presentation on the 10,000 Year Clock.

His appearance is through NASA Langley Research Center’s monthly Sigma lecture series. Sheila Thibeault, a senior research physicist at Langley, recommended Rose for the series.

“We at NASA strive for technical excellence in everything we do,” said Thibeault. “The 10,000 Year Clock project is an outstanding example of technical excellence.”

Rose, along with computer scientist Danny Hillis, dreamed up a massive monument to time itself specifically designed to become timeless.

“If we do our jobs right, hopefully people will discover it in the future or it will stay in continuous use into the future,” Rose said.

While the original purposes of ancient wonders are often lost, he said, “hopefully there’ll be a little bit more evidence in the machine that we’re building.”

“But I think the main thing we’re trying to get across to those future generations,” Rose said, “is that we cared about them.”

‘Create a mythos’

Rose and Hillis began brainstorming about a millennial clock in 1989. They eventually came up with an elegant prototype that’s been on loan to the Science Museum of London since 1999.

The design has shifted quite a bit since then to something far more architectural, although the dial is still similar.

The clock is being installed in at least six phases inside a desert mountain on property owned by Jeff Bezos, billionaire founder of Amazon and the project’s patron.

It will stretch through 500 vertical feet of tunnels and chambers, a spiral staircase hewn from solid limestone over two years by a specially built free-access robot, a vast network of gears, rotating dials, huge stone disks, a titanium pendulum, a spinning governor, a chime generator, a solar synchronizer and clock winder.

Because metals in contact with each other can corrode over time, some key components are made of stone and high-tech ceramics.

When people visit the finished product, they’ll essentially be walking through the vast workings of the clock. They will also be its main power source – responsible for winding a large weight hanging on a rack gear.

But if people don’t visit, the clock can still operate on a basic level on the thermal energy captured from the temperature difference between night and day.

The chime generator is programmed to never repeat a melody. It will play whenever visitors wind the clock, but sometimes enough energy will be stored that chimes will ring out even if no one is around to hear them.

The face of the clock is a dial 8 feet wide that displays astronomical time, the stars and planets and Earth’s march through the galaxy. And, if visitors wind up the display wheel, it can also can show the time of day.

Half of the phases have been installed already, and the chime generator will be in place in the next few months, Rose said. There’s no timeline for completion, but it could be finished and commissioned for public visits in a few years.

The team had considered making the clock more accessible, but ultimately chose the opposite.

“The larger idea here is to try to create a mythos around it,” Rose said. “It’s not that we’re trying to hide it from people – we’re trying to put it in a place where it will remain safe for a very long period of time. And the remoteness kind of helps with the mythic quality, the storytelling quality.”

The site isn’t “horrendously difficult” to access, he said: a couple of hours’ drive to a trailhead, a hike to the entrance, a hike through the tunnels and chambers, then back again to the trailhead. The entire experience would take a day.

“And the point of that is that the journey is very much part of the experience,” Rose said. “You’re traveling with a group of friends, you’ll be telling each other why you think you’re going.

“And then, after you’re coming back, you’ll be telling each other how it may have changed you, hopefully. And then you’ll be able to tell that story to other people. And then that story will hopefully be used in the larger societal context to be something that’s inspiring to others.”

Alexander Rose is director of The Long Now Foundation and project manager for the 10,000 Year Clock.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn.

Alexander Rose is director of The Long Now Foundation and project manager for the 10,000 Year Clock.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn. (Christopher Prentiss Michel / HANDOUT)

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The mountain site being excavated to contain the 10,000 Year Clock, which will stretch 500 vertical feet through solid rock.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn.

The mountain site being excavated to contain the 10,000 Year Clock, which will stretch 500 vertical feet through solid rock.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn. (/ HANDOUT)

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAUser Upload Caption: The mountain site being excavated to contain the 10,000 Year Clock, which will stretch 500 vertical feet through solid rock.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAUser Upload Caption: The mountain site being excavated to contain the 10,000 Year Clock, which will stretch 500 vertical feet through solid rock.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn. (/ HANDOUT)

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The tunnel Entrance to the mountain in West Texas that will house the 10,000 Year Clock.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn.

The tunnel Entrance to the mountain in West Texas that will house the 10,000 Year Clock.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn. (/ HANDOUT)

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The chime generator is part of the 10,000 Year Clock, programmed to never repeat the same melody over its lifetime.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn.

The chime generator is part of the 10,000 Year Clock, programmed to never repeat the same melody over its lifetime.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn. (/ HANDOUT)

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This is the titanium pendulum for the 10,000 Year Clock, a massive project designed to be an inspiration for generations today and long into the future.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn.

This is the titanium pendulum for the 10,000 Year Clock, a massive project designed to be an inspiration for generations today and long into the future.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn. (/ HANDOUT)

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These dials are part of the 10,000 Year Clock, a massive project designed to be an inspiration for generations today and long into the future.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn.

These dials are part of the 10,000 Year Clock, a massive project designed to be an inspiration for generations today and long into the future.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn. (/ HANDOUT)

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This is Prototype 1 of the 10,000 Year Clock, a massive project designed to be an inspiration for generations today and long into the future. It's on display at the Science Museum of London.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn.

This is Prototype 1 of the 10,000 Year Clock, a massive project designed to be an inspiration for generations today and long into the future. It's on display at the Science Museum of London.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn. (/ HANDOUT)

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This is the dial for Prototype 1 of the 10,000 Year Clock, a massive project designed to be an inspiration for generations today and long into the future. It's on display at the Science Museum of London.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn.

This is the dial for Prototype 1 of the 10,000 Year Clock, a massive project designed to be an inspiration for generations today and long into the future. It's on display at the Science Museum of London.- Original Source: The Long Now Fdn. (/ HANDOUT)

Contact Dietrich at 757-247-7892 or tdietrich@dailypress.com. Follow on Twitter at DP_Dietrich